School of Forestry

Paul M. Dunn: The enrollment had been 300 or 400, and when I arrived there were only about 60 students.

Royal Jackson / Jennifer Lee: Do you mean at Oregon State or in the School or Forestry?

Paul M. Dunn: In Forestry.

Royal Jackson / Jennifer Lee: What was the position you were offered here?

Paul M. Dunn: Dean of Forestry.

Royal Jackson / Jennifer Lee: Had Dean McCulloch preceded you?

Paul M. Dunn: No, he succeeded me. I succeeded Dean George Peavy. Dean Peavy had been here since 1910, and in 1934 he became President of OSU,but he still carried on as Dean of the School. He retired in 1940 and was made Emeritus, and Professor Earl G. Mason was made Acting Dean.

Royal Jackson / Jennifer Lee: He was a professor in Forest Management at that time?

Paul M. Dunn: Yes, he had been on the staff since about 1923, and was named Acting Dean. The Board appointed me as Dean in 1942.

Royal Jackson / Jennifer Lee: Can you tell us some of your impressions of Oregon when you came in 1942?

Paul M. Dunn: I was acquainted with Oregon, even while I was in Utah, through meetings and other excursions into the Northwest and California. I knew the state and its resources. I was acquainted with a good many of the government and state officials in Oregon and the Northwest. I had visited the University earlier and became acquainted with many of the staff. In 1941 the State had embarked on a research program in forest products, which added to the program of the forestry school and the program of the State.

Royal Jackson / Jennifer Lee: What were the major programs in the School of Forestry when you assumed the Deanship in 1942?

Paul M. Dunn: There were three phases of the curriculum: Forest Management, Forest Engineering, and Forest Products. Forest Engineering was established in 1913, as I recall, and Forest Products in 1918 or 1919. Carried on as majors in the overall curriculum, they have continued that way since.

Royal Jackson / Jennifer Lee: How about Forest Management, was it in the original Forestry curriculum?

Paul M. Dunn: Yes, certain forestry courses were taught in the University prior to 1904 by Professor Lake who was in the Botany Department. Then the Department of Forestry, or rather

Paul M. Dunn: a curriculum in Forestry, was initiated with enrollment following that endeavor. However, Dean Peavy wasn't appointed until 1910. At that time the first class, the first four year group of students, was graduated.

Royal Jackson / Jennifer Lee: Do you remember who those students were?

Paul M. Dunn: Yes, I knew three of them well. T. J. Starker was one, and also Sinclair Wilson and Harold Gill. Jack Pernot, the fourth, was killed in 1914 when he was working for the Forest Service.

Royal Jackson / Jennifer Lee: Before 1904 or 1905 Professor Lake was the only instructor?

Paul M. Dunn: Yes.

Royal Jackson / Jennifer Lee: When did someone else start teaching in the School of Forestry? Do you remember that?

Paul M. Dunn: In 1905 and later.

Royal Jackson / Jennifer Lee: So, Peavy came then in 1910?

Paul M. Dunn: Yes. He had been with the Forest Service in California before that.

Royal Jackson / Jennifer Lee: What was he like? I've heard so much about him. What was your impression of Peavy?

Paul M. Dunn: I had known him for several years. He was a dynamic sort of person. Energetic, outgoing .. very enthusiastic about our forest resources and the development of them, and was well known and well liked. Being an outgoing person, he was interested in a good many different types of forestry and forestry programs. He was, you could call him, a "power-house."

Royal Jackson / Jennifer Lee: Did you say he was the Father of Forestry at Oregon State? Was he the one that really got it off the ground?

Paul M. Dunn: Oh, yes, and being with it for thirty years, he had a lot of time to interject into the program his ideas along with the ideas of others. He collaborated and cooperated with others extremely well.

Royal Jackson / Jennifer Lee: He was President when you came in 1942?

Paul M. Dunn: No, he had retired from the Presidency in 1940. Dr. F.A. Gilfillan was Acting President at the time I arrived and he was the person who contacted me about the position.

Royal Jackson / Jennifer Lee: How many professors were in the School of Forestry when you came?

Paul M. Dunn: Seven.

Royal Jackson / Jennifer Lee: Roughly what enrollment, do you recall?

Paul M. Dunn: I think the enrollment in 1942 was about sixty, because the Class of '42 saw about the last of the major group of men who eventually went into military service. However, when I came, in the Class of '43, there was a handful of Naval Reservists who were completing their Navy Program. They carried on until June 1943 and then left for the service.

Royal Jackson / Jennifer Lee: Did the enrollment in the School of Forestry drop during those war years pretty radically?

Paul M. Dunn: Oh, yes. From several hundred to a low point of about 40.

Royal Jackson / Jennifer Lee: These were all men; there were no women in the School?

Paul M. Dunn: That's right, at that time.

Royal Jackson / Jennifer Lee: By this time certain pieces of McDonald Forest had been acquired and these were serving as a laboratory as early as the 1940's for some classes?

Paul M. Dunn: That's right. McDonald Forest and other properties related to the School program got their start in the early '20's. The initial effort was the Peavy Arboretum which was established in 1923. That was the result of efforts of the alumni and staff, and other interests, with money made available through contributions. That land was purchased -- 180 acres. Then the McDonald Bequest program was initiated in 1927, which was the result of Dr. Peavy's contact with Mrs. Mary McDonald who was interested in providing a facility for the use of the forestry students.

Royal Jackson / Jennifer Lee: I would like to get into that in detail in the next interview, so maybe we could go on past that now, and get your reaction to the war years at Oregon State. What was Oregon State like during the war years, 1941-45?

Paul M. Dunn: We carried on in undergraduate instruction in forestry. Also, there were two or three graduate students at that time. We developed the Forest Products Research Program that was initiated in 1941 by State legislation. The Dean of the School was the Director of the Forest Research Laboratory.

Royal Jackson / Jennifer Lee: Is that the present Forest Research Laboratory?

Paul M. Dunn: The core of it.

Royal Jackson / Jennifer Lee: The legislature saw a need to create this?

Paul M. Dunn: Yes, for several reasons. Basically, to develop the use of wood materials and to conduct research efforts for the war program. It pointed first at better or complete

Paul M. Dunn: utilization of forest materials, not only woods waste, but sawmill waste and other products. There were several programs of research carried on in those areas, not only in the field but in logging and harvesting areas, and also in the chemical laboratories. There was research in getting cork from Douglas fir bark and oils from some of the wood, charcoal briquets and that sort of thing. One of the projects was an attempt to utilize the wood wastes to make wood alcohol -- methyl alcohol. Teaching needs had been reduced due to the decline in war time enrollment and this provided a place to use some of the faculty as well as the graduate students.

Royal Jackson / Jennifer Lee: Was the School of Forestry housed in the building across from the Memorial Union when you came?

Paul M. Dunn: Yes, that building was built in 1917.

Royal Jackson / Jennifer Lee: What was the building called at that time?

Paul M. Dunn: The Forestry Building.

Royal Jackson / Jennifer Lee: It was built for the School of Forestry?

Paul M. Dunn: That's right. For the entire use of the School.

Royal Jackson / Jennifer Lee: So the Forest Products Laboratory as well as all the departments of the School of Forestry were housed in that building?

Paul M. Dunn: In a sense. However, when the Forest Products Research Program developed and grew, we had to have other buildings. There was a small unit constructed where the power plant is now. A few years later we built the building where the printing office is, and that was the Forest Products Laboratory unit as well as the Chemical Engineering research unit. Now, I think, it is all the Printing Building. There might be some other uses. Then subsequently the program was enlarged as interest and income grew, and the present facility down at the end of 30th and Philomath Road [Western Avenue in 1990] was established.

Royal Jackson / Jennifer Lee: Were there any major outcomes of these research programs during the war years that were notable for their application for war time needs? You mentioned something about wood alcohol.

Paul M. Dunn: That was just in the productive stage when the war came to an end, but it would have been very useful in supplementing the material alcohol needed for the war effort. Considerable research provided containers and boxes and utilization of certain